The Strathmore Library has become a popular spot for art, and Skills for Success is bringing another great addition to that with a new mural. After around a month of hard work, the mural is expected to be fully complete later this week.
Team lead of the Skills for Success program Shantelle Vermeylen explains that in partnership with the Town of Strathmore and the library, they wanted to bring a mural that represented what the library and Strathmore is about.
"We've incorporated the flora on the outside of it with the brickwork to represent when urban culture meets with nature, our clients felt that was representative of Strathmore and its growth and where it's going right now. And we've also incorporated the word 'welcome' in several different languages to represent the purpose of this room. We also incorporated the edges peeling away, that's representative of the change and transformation that people receive through education."
The Skills for Success team and their almost completed mural!The mural is outside of the room used to teach literacy and English language skills, so the different languages represent the people who could come to the library and use that space.
The Skills for Success program is an Alberta-wide 2 year pilot program funded by the Alberta Government and in partnership with the Town of Strathmore. It's art based essential skills program, where they work with clients to build skills for employment through art. Vermeylen explained that it's not the art itself that is the main focus, but the other skills and benefits that come from working on these projects.
"We assist clients to build their confidence, to build their self-esteem through doing art projects with the focus on building their skills for employment. So we focus on things like communication and collaboration, adaptability, and also contributing to the community and building that connection as well."
"It really goes a long way for building some self-awareness, a sense of confidence and the participation in the community, as well as the focus on the soft skills that are in high demand right now, so problem solving, critical thinking, teamwork, adaptability."
Vermeylen added this focus on soft skills is a big strength of their program, as offering people the chance to naturally learn these through projects is the best way to pick them up. While their program is open to everybody, it can be especially useful for those straight out of school looking for a job, or those that may have been out of employment for an extended period.
"Some might have a hard time building these skills through traditional methods. Classroom learning isn't the best way to learn these because they're best just sort of picked up, kind of natural skills that you built through experience."
Perhaps one of the biggest benefits of the program is that our community now gets some beautiful art as well! Skills for Success is planning on more collaborations around town, so it's possible we'll be getting more murals popping up soon. If all goes well, they may even expand into other surrounding communities.
If you want to learn more or register, you can visit their website here.
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